The Twitter ARG (or whatever it is) is getting interesting. You can follow (or just stalk) @The_Buzzing for cryptic tweets/clues from the bees, @PrunePrince (who I assume is Said the mummy), @CorporateBlues (I'm guessing Kirsten Geary), or follow the hashtag #hivehum to follow the entire conversation. From reading recent posts by Funcom, and seeing them tease about Tokyo, I think this Twitter stuff is somehow related.

Apparently there are in-game and real-life rewards given out every so often for participation. The discussion under #hivehum is pretty awesome; it's great to see the players really get into character and try to figure these things out.

I have to admit as a pure PvP player I was skeptical coming to this game 7 months ago, the PvP Was TERRIBLE initially but the LAST 2 patches have been very focused on fixing PvP balance especially 1.4 and 1.5 patches. Now the PvP experience is amazing. Most of all the PVP ACTUALLY MATTERS in this game. There are 5 buffs your faction vies for and they are pretty good buffs. Each objective in PvP will give your faction those buffs. The entire lore is set around the PvP strife of Lumie/Templar/Dragon and the way they added in the underdog PvP missions and Council of Venice has really converted me to a believer of this game.

So what does this game have that other games dont have:

1.) Sweet graphics, smooth gameplay, free to play after $15 box cost, NO BUY TO WIN.

2.) Healthy Population >300,000 people playing this game

3.) NO CLASSES:

- This has to be one of hte best thigns for both pvp and pve. First of all there is no reason for alts in this game. You can heal one day, dps the next and tank the next. Its fun and adds more variability to gameplay. Its nice to learn new roles and experience new things in game. Its also GREAT for PvP theres OP builds because if people think something is OP they can just use it, but every build has a counter build in this game. Teamplay is grealy encouraged and this game has an amazing synergy system.

- One example of synergy is that healers in PVP should not go Fist/Blood for example. Sure that may sound beneficial to the healer to have cold blooded and fist HOTS/Empowerement but its more beneficial to the team for him to go fist/shotgun (for cleanup, breach, flak jacket) or Fist/DA for (win-win, Deadly Aim).

- These are things that you need to think of when you join PvP instances, and owPVP matches.

Fantasic PvP experience.

Early on this game sucked for PvP it had broken instances only 1 was working at a time. Population was low.

1.) Stonehenge - King of the Hill 5 v 5 v 5 PvP minigame
2.) El Dorado - Capture the Flag 10 v 10 v 10 PvP minigame
3.) Fusang - This reminds me of RvR in DAoC or Colony Zone in Knight online its awesome. Its persistant 75 v 75 v 75 PvP playfield with facilities you have to capture, turrets to defeat, has some pve elements like CZ did, you get buffs for controlling them which are very important, also you get bonuses for multi kills, has upgradables you can buy to strengthen your factions strongholds there, and has multiple PvP Missions within this area.
4.) PvP missions daily and they keep adding new ones
5.) Can gear all the way to endgame solely through PvP
6.) Can XP solely through PvP (AP/SP)
- There also is cabal ladder and monthy duel contests with rewards
- They also have a PvP training dummies where you can test skills and combos, theres ACT and Combat stats 1.3 so you can monitor your combat numbers
7.) 3 persistant PvP zones as well where you can fight anyone u want they are located in the main hubs of the cities.

PvE endgame

- Endgame there are 8 dungeons, 1 raid, and 9 Lairs. All are endgame content. After Lairs there are regional bosses which give sick rewards but take 10+ people to kill. Coming in patch 1.7 they are adding 2nd Raid, a World boss and a new map with new missions and such.

UPCOMING PVP CONTENT

- There are two PvP contents coming that they are working on prob will be here 1.8 patch

1.) Open World PvP event, factions will need to defend relics in huge RvRvR type PvP

2.) The PvP dungeon they have been working on for a few months. Joel said its coming soon so can't wait hoepfully it will be like Tara in AO!

Most of all something I look at is this is a NEW GAME. Its not like some of those games that have been out for years and will take you 5-6 months of just pure grinding to "catch up to everyone". In a matter of weeks you can be full 10.2 purples just using the random drops from nightmare mobs. The disparty between ql10.2 and ql10.4 custom gear is rather small.

Cost of game: $15

Add ons: Yes lots in curse Client

Time it takes to get "Endgame geared": about 7-8 weeks or 6 days on the /played pending how often you play. Also I optimzied my playtime for progression I didn't do any lore, roleplay, side missions. The game has a lot in that arena too I just skipped it.

The crazy amount of shit this game took all over the internet since it's release pulled me away from it for many months. Few weeks ago I saw it while I was shopping in a retail store and since it doesn't require a sub anymore I said "You know what?....Why not." (The freaking cover art is really appealing to me!).
I have one think to say. TSW is easily one of the most underrated MMOs I've played the last few years. I can't wait coming home every day and fire up my PC to play this game, it's a feeling that I personally don't get that often anymore.
To all the people that are like me and passes on this game because of the negativity I say; If you kinda like adventure games or digging the secret society/Lovecraft style setting of the game....Go for it, you might love it! It's one of a kind anyways.
I might go deeper into details, pros and cons etc. in another post once I go further into the game.

It gets better and better as you progress through the game, i itch for the DLCs now , can't wait to play the 6th on Sunday, after the early acess for Grandmasters and Subbers goes off (Just checked this on the games launcher , its 3 days.)

Don't know if this is a good deal or not, but you can buy Secret World + 1200 Funcom points for $29.99(£19.99) at GMG.

To declare that a personal, inner experience gives certainty about the workings of the universe is to assign far too much value to one’s subjective sense of conviction.
I’m not that arrogant.
The brain, marvelous instrument though it is, isn’t infallible. It can misfire, seize or hallucinate, and it can do so in a way that’s utterly indistinguishable from reality to the person experiencing it.

You get 1200 FP once you complete 30 missions in the game. If you get another 1200FP on top of that to a total of 2400 free FP then it's a great deal.

When i bought TSW it was 30 euros for the game, Initiates Pack, all DLCs including the fifth that had just launched . I also received those 1200FP when i did 30 missions. That seemed like a good deal at the time.